The Mumpsimus

Andrew Haigh wrote and directed one of my favorite films of the century so far, Weekend , and his 2015 movie 45 Years  is based on David Constantine's breathtaking short story  "In Another Country"  — as rich and perfect a story as you're ever likely to read. For these reasons, I put off seeing the movie for a long time, because I feared it could not live up to my hopes and expectations for it. And no, it couldn't live up to my hopes and expectations, and my hopes and expectations did, indeed, get in the way — but it's still an impressive film. In particular, the performances and the cinematography are magnificent. The plot of 45 Years  is simple, and starts right from the second scene: An older couple, Kate and Geoff, are getting ready to celebrate their 45th wedding anniversary, having not been able to celebrate their 40th because of Geoff's heart bypass surgery. That week, Geoff receives an official letter letting him know that a body has been ...

Without any conscious decision to do so, I ended up watching two movies this week that make an excellent pair: Beginners  and Weekend . Both have a lot to say about repression, shame, sex, and families, but they do so with a generally light touch. Beginners  is the more comic of the two films, though its real triumph is its balance of humor and heartbreak, while Weekend  is more subdued — a little bit verité , a little bit mumblecore  — and far less likely than Beginners  to attract Oscar votes or general viewers, which is a shame, because it's better than almost everything that will be nominated for all the awards. Beginners  is writer-director Mike Mills's semi-autobiographical story of a father's last few years of life and a son's attempt to find a romantic relationship that will last more than just a little while. The father, played by Christopher Plummer, announces that, now that his wife of 40+ years has died, he feels able to admit openly that h...